Coating method, coating apparatus and method for manufacturing component

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides a coating method for suppressing variations in a coating amount, a coating apparatus and a method for manufacturing a component. A coating method is employed, which includes: discharging a coating needle adhering to an adhesive from a nozzle; separating the adhesive into the tip of the coating needle and the nozzle; and adhering the adhesive to a first member. A coating apparatus is employed, which includes: a nozzle which holds the adhesive; a coating needle which is discharged from the nozzle in a state where the adhesive is adhered to the tip; and a control unit which controls moving speed of the coating needle to separate the adhesive into the tip of the coating needle and the nozzle.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a coating method, a coating apparatus and a method for manufacturing a component. Particularly, the present disclosure relates to a coating method using an adhesive, a coating apparatus and a method for manufacturing a component.

BACKGROUND

In the related art, in order to protect a pixel portion of an image sensor, a cover glass is attached.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a state when a cover glass of a protective member 6 is attached to a semiconductor element 4 of an image sensor. In order to attach the protective member 6 to the semiconductor element 4, initially, it is necessary to apply an adhesive 5 to a surface of the semiconductor element 4. FIG. 2 is a view showing an apparatus for applying the adhesive 5. A coating needle 1 is inserted into a nozzle 2 which is filled with the adhesive 5.

FIG. 3 is a view of a state when the adhesive 5 is applied to the semiconductor element 4. The coating needle 1 is moved to a bottom and comes out from the nozzle 2. An adhesive 5 e is adhered to a tip of the coating needle 1, and the adhesive 5 e is transferred to the semiconductor element 4 by further lowering the coating needle 1. The coating needle 1 is operated at a constant speed and lowered to a position where the adhesive 5 e is transferred to the semiconductor element 4. When transferring, the adhesive 5 e on the tip of the coating needle 1 and an adhesive 5 f adhering to a lateral surface if near the tip of the coating needle 1 are transferred simultaneously.

After the adhesive 5 is applied, the protective member 6 approaches the semiconductor element 4 as shown in FIG. 1. Expanse of the adhesive 5 at this time is illustrated in FIGS. 4A to 4C. FIGS. 4A to 4C are plan views illustrating aging variations when the protective member 6 is attached to the semiconductor element 4.

The adhesive 5 is spread in a concentric circle shape in the order of FIG. 4A to FIG. 4C. Since the protective member 6 is transparent, the adhesive 5 can be seen.

In order to adhere firmly, it is necessary to forward the adhesive 5 to four corners of the protective member 6. Therefore, since it is necessary to make the adhesive 5 protrude from an external form of the semiconductor element 4, in consideration of variations in the coating amount, it is necessary to apply the adhesive 5 in a large amount.

Finally, FIG. 5 is a side view illustrating a finished product when the coating amount of the adhesive 5 is too large. An adhesive dripping 11 to the lateral surface of the semiconductor element 4 and an adhesive creeping-up 10 to the cover glass occur. The adhesive dripping 11 and the adhesive creeping-up 10 occur more often on a central part of a side of the protective member 6. The adhesive creeping-up 10 comes into a state in which the central part of the side becomes most prevalent, and decreases in a direction of both sides corners of the protective member 6. The adhesive dripping 11 comes into a state in which the central part of the side of the semiconductor element 4 becomes most prevalent, and decreases in a direction of both sides corners of the semiconductor element 4. When these adhere to the protective member 6, marks appear due to the adhesive 5 spread in a concentric circle shape, there is a risk of low quality caused by unnecessary adhesive transferring of the next step. If coating in a large amount, in consideration of the variations in the coating amount, it is highly possible that low quality finished products may be mass produced. Therefore, it is necessary to suppress the variations in the coating amount and not to increase the coating amount of the adhesive as much as possible.

There is a method of JP-A-2016-21736 (Patent Literature 1) as a method for controlling the coating amount with high accuracy. In JP-A-2016-21736, the adhesive is coated on one side of the semiconductor element and is spread to other sides.

SUMMARY

However, JP-A-2016-21736 is not a method for suppressing variations in a coating amount and extra steps are needed.

The present disclosure solves the conventional problems and provides a coating method for suppressing variations in the coating amount, a coating apparatus and a component manufacturing method.

In order to solve the problem as described above, a coating method is employed, in which the coating method including the following steps: a discharge step in which a coating needle adhering an adhesive comes out from a nozzle; a separating step in which the adhesive is separated onto the tip of the coating needle and the nozzle; and a adhering step that the adhesive adheres to a first member.

A component manufacturing method is employed, in which the manufacturing method including the following steps: a discharge step in which a coating needle adhering an adhesive comes out from a nozzle; a separating step that the adhesive is separated onto the tip of the coating needle and the nozzle; a adhering step in which the adhesive adheres to a first member; and a bonding step in which a second member is bonded from the adhesive on the first member.

A coating apparatus is employed, in which the coating apparatus including: a nozzle holding an adhesive; a coating needle coming out from the nozzle in a state that adhesive is adhered to the tip; a control unit that can control separation of the adhesive from the tip of the coating needle and the nozzle by controlling a moving speed of the coating needle.

According to the transferring coating apparatus of the present disclosure, since coating amount variations of a minute point of transferring can be reduced, it is possible to coat accurately the coating amount which can firmly fill up four corners under the bonding member and to improve bonding reliability between a semiconductor chip and a bonding member. In addition, amount extruding from bonding members becomes fewer and influence of next steps will be eliminated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view when a cover glass is attached to a related semiconductor element;

FIG. 2 is a view illustrating adhesive coating by means of related adhesive coating needle;

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating a relationship between the adhesive and the coating needle in a transfer of related adhesive coating;

FIGS. 4A to 4C are plan views when the related semiconductor element adheres to a protective member;

FIG. 5 is a side view of a semiconductor element when a related adhesive coating means is used;

FIG. 6A is a front view of a mounting structure of an embodiment, and FIG. 6B is a plan view of the mounting structure of the embodiment;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged side view of the semiconductor mounting structure of the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a view illustrating a relationship between the adhesive and the coating needle which is stopped in the adhesive coating of the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a view illustrating a relationship between the adhesive and the coating needle after the stop in the adhesive coating of the embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a view illustrating a relationship between the adhesive and the coating needle which is lowered again in the adhesive coating of the embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a view illustrating a relationship between the adhesive and the coating needle which is transferring in the adhesive coating of the embodiment;

FIG. 12A is a view illustrating an operation flow in a related adhesive coating, and FIG. 12B is a view illustrating an operation flow in the adhesive coating of the embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a graph obtained by plotting coating amounts in the related method and the embodiment; and

FIG. 14A is a view illustrating a relationship between time and a position of a tip of the related coating needle, FIGS. 14B and 14C are views illustrating a relationship between time and a position of a tip of the coating needle of the embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.

<Structure>

FIG. 6A is a side view of a semiconductor mounting structure 100 of an embodiment, and FIG. 6B is a plan view of the semiconductor mounting structure 100 of the embodiment. FIG. 7 is an enlarged side view of the semiconductor mounting structure 100 of the embodiment and illustrates an end portion of an adhesive 5. In FIG. 7, a protective member 6 adheres to a semiconductor element 4 by the adhesive 5.

The semiconductor element 4 is a functional element such as an image sensor. In this example, the semiconductor element 4 is a square of about 1 mm×1 mm in a plan view and the overall shape thereof is a rectangular parallelepiped.

In this case, the protective member 6 is a cover glass for protecting the semiconductor element 4. The size of the protective member 6 is a square less than 1 mm×1 mm and is smaller than the semiconductor element 4 in a plan view.

The adhesive 5 is for making the semiconductor element 4 adhere to the protective member 6.

The adhesive 5 includes a center portion 5 c between the semiconductor element 4 and the protective member 6, a periphery portion 5 b located on the periphery of the center portion 5 c and a lateral surface portion 5 a creeping up to the lateral surface of the quadrate protective member 6. Further, the center portion 5 c is only located on the bottom (bonding surface) of the protective member 6. The lateral surface portion 5 a is located on the top of the periphery portion 5 b. The lateral surface portion 5 a and the periphery portion 5 b change greatly depending on variations in the coating amount of the adhesive 5. Since an amount that can completely fill at least the center portion 5 c needs to be served as a minimum coating amount, it is necessary to aim for more than an amount that can be minimum depending on the variations in the coating amount. As a result, when variations in the coating amount are large, there is an amount that is more than the lateral surface portion 5 a and the periphery portion 5 b need, which may cause an adhesive dripping 11 to the lateral surface of the semiconductor element 4.

The semiconductor mounting structure 100 of the embodiment can reduce the variations in the coating amount of adhesive 5 and can reduce the occurrence of the adhesive dripping 11 to the lateral surface of the semiconductor element 4.

This structure can be realized by the following manufacturing method.

<Manufacturing Method>

In a related art, a method for applying the adhesive 5 by controlling a coating needle 1 from starting lowering to transferring at a constant speed is used. Here, a region of the constant speed excludes regions of low speed at initial stage when the coating needle 1 starts to move and an end stage when the coating needle 1 is stopped.

In an embodiment, variations in the coating amount of adhesive 5 can be reduced by controlling a speed of a lowering operation of the coating needle 1.

<Steps>

FIG. 12A shows a related adhesive coating operation, and FIG. 12B shows an adhesive coating operation of the embodiment. Compared to the related method, in the embodiment, the moving speed of the coating needle 1 is controlled to be changed and temporarily stopped. Then, an operation of temporarily stopping the operation of lowering the coating needle 1 is used and steps until applying the adhesive 5 to the semiconductor element 4 will be described.

(1) Filling Step

Firstly, the adhesive 5 is filled into a nozzle 2 and is held. In this example, an acrylic resin type adhesive having a low viscosity of about 1000 mPa·s was used as the adhesive 5. FIG. 2 is a view of an apparatus applied with the adhesive 5. The coating needle 1 is inserted into the nozzle 2 which is filled with the adhesive 5. If the adhesive 5 is already held to the nozzle 2, the filling step is not necessary.

(2) Discharging Step

From a state of FIG. 2, the coating needle 1 is moved downward and the coating needle 1 is discharged to the outside of the nozzle 2.

(3) Separating Step

After the discharge step, a constant moving speed of the coating needle 1 is changed and stopped halfway. FIG. 8 is a view illustrating a relationship between the adhesive 5 and the coating needle 1 which is stopped halfway. The coating needle 1 is moved in a downward direction and is temporarily stopped when the coating needle 1 protrudes a constant distance from the nozzle 2. The adhesive 5 extruded from the nozzle 2 is separated into an adhesive 5 e adhering to a tip of the coating needle 1 and an adhesive 5 d adhering to a lateral surface of the coating needle 1. The adhesive 5 is separated by stopping. Further, although the adhesive 5 can be separated even if the coating needle 1 is moved at the constant speed, the position of separation is almost not changed.

At this time, the coating needle 1 is stopped when protruding 1 mm from the tip of the nozzle 2. The length of the coating needle 1 protruding from the tip of the nozzle 2 needs to be changed according to the type of the adhesive 5, the outer diameter and the inner diameter of the nozzle 2, and the outer diameter of the coating needle 1.

FIG. 9 is a view illustrating a relationship between the adhesive 5 and the coating needle 1 after the stop in the adhesive coating of the embodiment. FIG. 9 shows a state 1 second later after the coating needle 1 is stopped. The adhesive 5 e adhering to a tip surface (a bottom surface) of the coating needle 1 is same as that shown in FIG. 8 (the coating needle 1 is held as in FIG. 8), but the shape of the adhesive 5 d adhering to the lateral surface of the coating needle 1 is different. The adhesive 5 d adhering to the lateral surface of the coating needle 1 is changed by being separated and pulled back to the nozzle 2 by a repellent force extruded to the coating needle 1 due to viscosity of the adhesive 5. As a result, the adhesive 5 d does not adhere to a lateral surface if near the tip of the coating needle 1.

(4) Coating Step

After the separating step, the coating needle 1 is moved again. FIG. 10 is a view illustrating a relationship between the adhesive and the coating needle 1 which is lowered again in the adhesive coating of the embodiment. Even if the coating needle 1 is lowered again, the operation is continued in a state in which the adhesive 5 d does not adhere to the lateral surface if near the tip of the coating needle 1.

FIG. 11 is a view illustrating a relationship between the adhesive 5 and the coating needle 1 which is transferring in the adhesive coating of the embodiment. In the adhesive coating to the semiconductor element 4, only the adhesive at the tip of the coating needle 1 is transferred. Since the adhesive 5 d adhering to the lateral surface of the coating needle 1 is not subjected to transfer, the variations of the amount of the coated adhesive 5 is stable with little variation.

Time of the temporary stop is preferably in a range of 0.5 second to 5 seconds. Although the time can be longer, when considering productivity, 5 seconds or less are preferable.

When a place to stop, a place to reduce the speed of the coating needle 1, or a place of the separating step is 1 mm to 2 mm and less than 3 mm away from the nozzle 2. If the distance from the nozzle 2 is too long (longer than 3 mm), the adhesive 5 which cannot be drawn in and out of a nozzle 2 side stays on a side of the coating needle 1, and the coating amount will not be stable.

Even if the nozzle needle 1 is not temporarily stopped, the same effect can be expected by reducing the speed from a certain point. FIG. 14A is a view illustrating a relationship between time and a position of the tip of the related coating needle. FIGS. 14B to 14C are views illustrating a relationship between time and a position of the tip of the coating needle of the embodiment. In FIG. 14B, the coating needle 1 is stopped halfway. In FIG. 14C, the coating needle 1 is not stopped but the speed is reduced halfway. For example, even if the coating needle 1 is discharged from the nozzle 2 at a speed of 1 mm/second, proceeds for 5 seconds at a speed of 0.11 mm/second from the position 1 mm away from the nozzle 2, and then is moved at a speed of 1 mm/second, the result is similar to the case of the temporary stop. It is preferably to change the moving speed stepwise halfway. Stopping or speed reducing may only occur in one position. Compared to changing gently as a whole, a discontinuous change is preferable.

Further, reducing the speed of the coating needle 1 (to stop the coating needle 1 at one end) excludes the initial stage and the end stage. That is, the initial stage immediately after the coating needle 1 is protruded from the nozzle 2 and the end stage before and after the coating needle 1 approaches the semiconductor element 4 of an object and applies the adhesive 5 are excluded.

(5) Bonding Step

After the adhesive 5 is applied, the semiconductor element 4 and the protective member 6 are united. Thereafter, the adhesive 5 is cured.

Experiment

FIG. 13 shows a result of plotting a graph obtained by applying the adhesives and plotting coating amounts in the related method and the embodiment. The experiment is performed under the following conditions.

Adhesive: acrylic resin-based about 1000 mPa·s

Inner diameter of nozzle: ϕ 800 μm

Speed of coating needle: 1.75 mm/second

Diameter of coating needle: ϕ 400 μm

Temporarily stopping position: a position of protruding 1 mm from a nozzle

Temporarily stopping time: 1 second

Except that the coating needle is not temporarily stopped in the related method, other conditions are the same.

Since the variations in the coating amount can be significantly reduced, compared to 3σ=0.22 in the related method, 3σ becomes 0.06 in the embodiment. At least, in the embodiment of this time, 3σ becomes 0.20 or less. More preferably, 3σ becomes 0.10 or less.

Compared to the coating method by means of transferring by the related coating needle, by temporarily stopping the lowering operation of the coating needle as described above, it is possible to eliminate the adhesion of the adhesive to the lateral surface of the coating needle and to reduce the variations in the coating amount.

(As A Whole)

An adhesive widely includes solder paste and a bonding member.

Instead of the semiconductor element 4, as a first member, it is also possible to apply the first member to various kinds of devices. Instead of the protective member 6, except for the cover glass, other devices as a second member can also use various kinds of protective members.

A control such as a control of the coating needle 1 in the apparatus can be performed by a control unit 12 of FIG. 3.

The coating apparatus of the present disclosure has a feature of reducing variations in the coating amount during one point transferring and can be applied widely to applications where members are attached together with high quality. In addition, the semiconductor mounting method and the semiconductor mounting apparatus of the present disclosure are not limited to a semiconductor and can be used in precision components such as optical components. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A coating method comprising: discharging a coating needle adhering to an adhesive from a nozzle; separating the adhesive onto a tip of the coating needle and the nozzle; and making the adhesive adhere to a first member.
 2. The coating method according to claim 1, wherein in the separating step, an adhesive on a lateral surface of the coating needle returns to a side of the nozzle and an adhesive on a tip surface of the coating needle can be maintained.
 3. The coating method according to claim 1, wherein the separating step is performed at a distance of 1 mm or more and less than 3 mm away from the nozzle.
 4. The coating method according to claim 1, wherein the separating step is a step of separating the adhesive from the tip of the coating needle and the nozzle by changing a moving speed of the coating needle.
 5. The coating method according to claim 4, wherein the change of the moving speed of the coating needle includes a temporary stop.
 6. The coating method according to claim 5, wherein time of the temporary stop is 0.5 second or more and 5 seconds or less.
 7. The coating method according to claim 4, wherein the change of the moving speed of the coating needle is to reduce the moving speed.
 8. The coating method according to claim 1, wherein when the coating method is repeatedly performed, 3σ of a variation in an amount of the adhesive adhering to the first member is 0.20 or less.
 9. A method for manufacturing a component comprising: the coating method according to claim 1; adhering the adhesive to the first member; and bonding a second member from the adhesive on the first member.
 10. A coating apparatus comprising: a nozzle which holds an adhesive; a coating needle which comes out from the nozzle while the adhesive adheres to the coating needle; and a control unit which controls moving speed of the coating needle to separate the adhesive at the coating needle into a tip of the coating needle and the nozzle. 